#Glitch delays benefits for 2.2M out-of-work New Yorkers

The Cuomo administration admitted Friday that a processing snafu by the state’s bank delayed $1.9 billion in pandemic-related unemployment benefits from reaching 2.26 million New Yorkers.

The state Labor Department announced early Friday that it had distributed three weeks retroactive $300 benefits under President Trump’s Lost Wages Assistance program.

But The Post was inundated with dozens of complaints from recipients that didn’t receive the LWA funds shortly after posting its story.

Irate recipients also stormed the Labor Department’s website to say they didn’t receive the money promised.

“Though I received a notice of eligibility last week, I did not get a payment today. The DOL website indicates a payment was processed for me yesterday, but no money has hit my account. In the past, the payment registers the same day,” said Katharine “Kat” Bride.

Bride, 39, of Long Island City, Queens, later emailed The Post to say she got her payment at 12:30 p.m. on Friday.

“However, that doesn’t explain the glitch that caused me to re-certify for weekly benefits three times this week,” said Bride, an out-of-work travel travel agent.

Scott Satachurski emailed to say, “Just contacted my bank. NY says it issued monies for unemployment when they actually didn’t. Unbelievable ”

Lisa Gee fumed, “The money was never distributed to bank accounts this morning. The DOL portal says it was released yesterday yet we never got it today. It NEVER takes more than one day. I think we’re being fed a bunch of BS!!”

The botched processing of payments is just the latest headache for the Cuomo administration. Aides to President Trump accused New York State officials of dragging their feet in even applying for the six $300 weekly LWA benefits.

The Labor Department, in a statement, said the processing error by its contractor, KeyBank, is being corrected and jobless New Yorkers should get three installments of $300 payments retroactively later Friday covering the weeks of Aug. 2, 19 and 16 later Friday.

“Yesterday we released $1.9 billion in LWA funds to 2.26 million NYers. Despite assurances their system could handle the load, KeyBank was unable to process payments overnight,” the department said in a statement..

“KeyBank now says payments have been processed & will reach bank accounts by 4:30PM at the latest. Every vendor who works with the DOL has a responsibility to get New Yorkers their benefits as quickly as possible—which KeyBank failed to do. KeyBank has assured us this problem will not impact future payments.

KeyBank apologized for the goof.

“This morning, KeyBank unfortunately experienced approximately a three hour delay in processing the supplemental Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) payments for unemployed New Yorkers. The issue has now been resolved and recipients have started to receive their LWA payments. All remaining LWA payments for New York will be received this afternoon by 4:30 pm EST,” KeyBank said in a statement.

“We understand how critical these additional funds are and apologize for the inconvenience and un-needed stress this error has caused. We are reviewing our processes and systems to ensure future LWA payments are processed correctly and delivered on time.”

The Labor Department will process three more $300 LWA payments retroactively to about 2.3 million New Yorkers for the weeks of Aug. 23, 30 and Sept. 6, beginning next week.

Trump authorized the $300 federal unemployment insurance payments by executive order on Aug. 8 after the $600-a-week payments provided by the CARES Act expired on July 31 and Congress deadlocked on an extension plan amid the economic crisis and joblessness triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo initially opposed Trump’s alternative program as “laughable” and “impossible” when it was first announced because it required that states kick in an additional $100 a week for each unemployed worker — something he said cash-strapped New York couldn’t afford. The White House subsequently waived that requirement.

The White House had accused Team Cuomo of dithering in applying for the president’s offer of the $300 bonus to the unemployed through the $44 billion Lost Wages Program, and only did so after The Post inquired about it.

Labor Department officials announced last week that New York qualified for the program and would begin releasing funds.

In total, New York state has paid $44.5 billion in benefits to New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic — representing more than 21 typical years’ worth of benefits paid in just six months.